This invention relates to circuit boards and their manufacture and more particularly to an improved bus bar structure to be used with such circuit boards to provide increased current carrying capacity and to increase board rigidity during the manufacturing and subsequent shipping processes.
Printed circuits on printed circuit boards frequently need conductors with high current carrying capacities in order to carry substantial current loads beyond that which the normal printed circuit paths are capable of carrying. Many times the current carrying capacity of a circuit board is augmented by adding a high current capacity bus bar to interconnect selected printed circuit paths on the circuit board. This interconnection is normally achieved by soldering the bus bar to the selected printed circuit path.
Wave soldering is probably one of the most widely used techniques of connecting current carrying components to printed circuit boards. The printed circuit boards have their components placed thereon or inserted therein and are placed on a conveyer system which causes the circuit board to pass through a fluxing unit, a preheating unit and a solder wave unit. As the circuit boards pass along the conveyer system, they contact the solder wave and each of the junctions to be soldered is maintained in contact with the solder wave for a controlled time. A small amount of solder remains in the solderable areas of the printed circuit board and makes the connections while excess solder returns into the solder wave machine. Following the soldering operation, the circuit board is subjected to a defluxing operation. These manufacturing operations subject the circuit boards along the conveyer to various mechanical vibrations and twisting which may move components about or distroy solder connections already made. These disturbing vibrations and twisting may be caused by any of the many operations that occur to the printed wiring board while being carried along the conveyer system. The circuit board is also subjected to many of these same and additional forces during product shipment which may cause breaks in existing solder connections.